Introducing Unified Update Platform (UUP)

Introducing Unified Update Platform (UUP)

We’ve updated over 400 million devices running Windows 10 to date and release new builds to Windows Insiders nearly every week. That is pretty incredible if you think about where we were just 2 years ago. But we know we can do even better! Our customers have told us they would like updates to be more seamless, that they’d like more control over the timing of when updates are installed, that they’d like updating to require less local processing and thus improve battery life, and that they’d like download sizes to be reduced. We’re working on all of the above. In the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, we added active hours and improved the control capabilities for our customers. In the next Windows 10 update, we’ll be improving that and more. Today, we are ready to roll out to our Windows Insiders an improvement that works across PC, tablet, phone, IoT, and HoloLens. We are announcing the next generation of our delivery technologies incorporated into our latest Insider builds called the Unified Update Platform (UUP).

One of the biggest community and customer benefits of UUP is the reduction you’ll see in download size on PCs. We have converged technologies in our build and publishing systems to enable differential downloads for all devices built on the Mobile and PC OS. A differential download package contains only the changes that have been made since the last time you updated your device, rather than a full build. As we rollout UUP, this will eventually be impactful for PCs where users can expect their download size to decrease by approximately 35% when going from one major update of Windows to another. We’re working on this now with the goal of supporting this for feature updates after the Windows 10 Creators Update; Insiders will see this sooner.

We have also revamped how devices check for updates, making them more efficient. As we move to UUP, we are reducing the update data sent to client devices as well as the amount of processing we are doing on devices, this especially important for devices built on the Mobile OS. Using UUP, when your device checks for updates, the Windows Update service will evaluate which updates are needed by a given device. The Windows Update service then returns these updates to the device for download and install. Because more processing is being done by the service, this will lead to faster checks for update operations. It’s important to note that with UUP, nothing will look or behave differently on the surface, UUP is all underlying platform and service optimization that happens behind the scenes.

We’ve also taken concepts that existed in the PC world and have extended them to Mobile. As you may have noticed in the past, PC flights update to the latest build in one operation, regardless of what base build you are currently running, yet that’s not how it worked for the Mobile OS. On your phone, we would sometimes require you to install in two-hops (updates) to get current. With UUP, we now have logic in the client that can automatically fallback to what we call a “canonical” build, allowing you to update your phone in one-hop, just like the PC.

We’re excited to start using UUP to release new builds to Windows Insiders. We plan to roll-out UUP in stages – starting today for Mobile devices. We expect to start using UUP for PC Insider builds later this year and then IoT and HoloLens shortly after. Our team is excited to begin publishing Mobile builds using UUP and seeing the results of a lot of hard work in unifying our update publishing platform for Windows.

Here's the thing, like most everyone else I'm tired of buggy updates. That said, in Windows 10 pro under group policy you can do more than just turn off updates. You actually have total control over how deferments work. If you look under the Windows Update folder you will find the deferment folder. There you can defer updates to match the Current Business Branch for Feature updates, and even delay "quality" updates, aka "fixes" by up to 35 days. FYI CBB can mean a 180 day delay, aka a six month delay. These choices should give people what they need while they wait for the bug fixes to be rolled out etc. That said, if Microsoft wants to improve Windows 10 update, these options should be in the update screen interface. You shouldn't need Windows pro and you should need to run Group policy. Right now, unfortunately, they are using the insiders as alpha testers, Home users as beta testers, and Pro users as post production testers if you don't know how to use group policies. This isn't a good way to build trust and stability into your product or user base.

One thing I have wanted for so long is that updates don't take up my time, either while downloading and installing, or updating my system at shutdown or rebooting and startup. Please can they be totally background processes, that use my processor when I am not using it, that courteously don't use up my internet bandwidth when I want to use it, and don't delay me when I want to stop or start using my computer.

Updates that clean up after themselves, and don't leave gigabytes of redundant files on my system. I'd also like to be asked if there is likely to be stuff of this nature left lying around, what I might want to do in advance of the changes being made.

Unlike some, I want to embrace change, and hope that the future will not only allow more effective interaction with computing systems, and less antagonism with systems that seem to serve the developers rather than the users.

Keyboard: Logitech K120 Mouse: Logitech PSU: Antec 380W Case: Antec NSK 4000B Cooling: Big case fans Hard Drives: 2 Seagate 500 GBs, Maxtor 300GB, WD160 all rescued from old Sky and NTL STB throwouts. Internet Speed: BT 70 down 20 up Browser: Edge Antivirus: MS Defender Other Info: This is seriously old kit - dating back to early 2005. Almost all of it was thrown out as trash at some time! The keyboard and mouse, and the Graphics Card cost about £20 altogether.
It lives in a case with 8 drive bays, and runs several multibooting systems - from Windows XP to 10, and some Linux distributions without problems, and generally with good speed.

I wonder why people does not disable windows update service! I have disabled it and every time that I want to update just enable the service and take the updates. The advantage is that I can review the comments on the latest update and make sure if it doesn't have major bugs then I decide to update. When you can disable the windows update service why change the group policy to prevent updates?

I wonder why people does not disable windows update service! I have disabled it and every time that I want to update just enable the service and take the updates. The advantage is that I can review the comments on the latest update and make sure if it doesn't have major bugs then I decide to update. When you can disable the windows update service why change the group policy to prevent updates?

If you are using third party security you maybe fine. However, many of the updates include security fixes. When Microsoft muddied the waters between security and non-security updates it became a problem because you really shouldn't just turn off updates. That was even true in Windows 7, although you could. There you should have kept loading the security patches. With group policy you can keep the quality patches up to date, but even there you may run into some issues. Microsoft just needs to get the QA back. In fact, if you go with their current update model, confine your changes to smaller pieces, or better yet multi-thread test labs for security/bug fixes and other for enhancements, and keep the insider program, they could push out smaller updates just as fast that would be solid and all this drama would simply go away. It may cost them a little more on the front end, but the software model has always been for every dollar spent in dev/test you saved 10 dollars in support/bug fix costs.

Here's the thing, like most everyone else I'm tired of buggy updates. That said, in Windows 10 pro under group policy you can do more than just turn off updates. You actually have total control over how deferments work. If you look under the Windows Update folder you will find the deferment folder. There you can defer updates to match the Current Business Branch for Feature updates, and even delay "quality" updates, aka "fixes" by up to 35 days. FYI CBB can mean a 180 day delay, aka a six month delay. These choices should give people what they need while they wait for the bug fixes to be rolled out etc. That said, if Microsoft wants to improve Windows 10 update, these options should be in the update screen interface. You shouldn't need Windows pro and you should need to run Group policy. Right now, unfortunately, they are using the insiders as alpha testers, Home users as beta testers, and Pro users as post production testers if you don't know how to use group policies. This isn't a good way to build trust and stability into your product or user base.

From what I have read, just having the Pro version isn't enough to defer updates. You also need to be getting said updates via "Windows Update for Business". PC's running in a Consumer environment are not supposed to have those options, only Corporate customers get them. That's why they are buried away in the Group Policy Editor.

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